Guidance Officers work with school teams and families to identify and address disabilities and other personal factors that affect a child's engagement at school.
Support can include:
- individual work with the student
- guidance to teachers and school teams
- guidance to families experiencing hardship
- communication with other support agencies or health professionals
- assistance in the development of whole school student support programs.
Specialist intervention and support *referral required*
Referrals for intervention and support are received through the school's Student Support Services (SSS) team. Class teachers are able to refer individual students to SSS after discussing concerns with parents/carers. Requests received from parents/carers or health professionals will be directed to the class teacher and SSS team for discussion.
The below services may be prioritised based on individual student need.
- Psycho-educational assessment (cognitive, behaviour, child development, mental health)
- Information gathering through observations, interviews, questionnaires
- Student counselling
- Individual student support
- Referrals to departmental supports or external support providers
- Individualised advice to parents and school teams regarding student support needs
- School based verification of disability *ID, SLI
Guidance and information *no referral required*
- General advice and support to teachers regarding whole class wellbeing programs and strategies e.g., mindfulness, trauma informed practices.
- Advice and support to all staff regarding policies and procedures
- General information and guidance to all staff on topics of student wellbeing, mental health, disability, educational adjustments and gifted and talented.
- General information and guidance to parents regarding mental health, family support and disability support services available in the community
Complex case support
Guidance Officers assist the school team to support students with complex personal, mental health or disability support needs. This can include working closely with school teams and external support providers to establish highly individualised support plans. Students requiring complex case support are identified by the Complex Case Management (CCM) team. Case Management roles are shared among the school's GO, DPs and HOSES.
Emergent/crisis support
Guidance Officers provide support to school teams and the school community where emergent support needs or crisis support is required. In these instances, DP/Principal directs support outside of an SSS referral. This can include support for:
- Traumatic events
- Natural disasters
- Suicide/Self-harm
- Emergent family support
*This is not an exhaustive list*
Parents are encouraged to speak with their child's class teacher in the first instance.